Marquette women’s lacrosse laid foundation for future success

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In a season where Marquette women’s lacrosse went 5-12 overall, built the foundation for the entire program.

“We improved vastly from our first year to our second year,” coach Meredith Black said. “The message I left my team with was that we need to come back better next year.”

The 2014 campaign saw steady improvements for coach Black’s side, which led to individuals and the team making history. This season, fans witnessed the program’s first conference victory, the first win streak and the first conference player of the week award. Wednesday afternoon, the team added another first as Amanda Bochniak, Claire Costanza, Elizabeth Goslee and Sarah Priem were named to the All-Big East Second Team in the Golden Eagles’ first season as a full member of the Big East.

The highlight of the season was a two-game win streak in late March, where the Golden Eagles ousted both Cincinnati and Winthrop, notching a 27-12 scoring advantage between the two games. During that stretch, the club held a significant advantage on draw controls and loose balls.

Unfortunately, when the calendar turned to April, the results were not nearly as kind, as the Golden Eagles lost the last seven games of the season. It wasn’t all bad news, as Marquette put some great stretches of play together against the likes of Georgetown, Louisville, Connecticut and Notre Dame.

“We competed with some of the top schools in the country and that was the plan for year two,” Black said.

With the 2014 season in the books, offseason workouts begin. In the coming weeks, the team will head home for the summer and begin polishing its game for the fall camp. Black stressed the emphasis of getting better individually before meeting back on campus next fall.

“The intensity and the competition is going to pick up (in the fall),” Black said. “I’m telling the team that this summer, they are going to have to work harder (individually) this summer than they ever have before.”

With the program’s foundation becoming stronger by the day, those involved know they have the potential to build something special at Marquette. However, the only way that the Golden Eagles can continue the expected success through hard work, just as was demonstrated throughout the team’s 2014 campaign.

“We are established, we’re still growing and we still have a lot of room to improve and a lot of things we need to work on before we get to where we want to be,” Black said.